Honestly, I saw the ship as a way to one up WoW with a glorified mount. Or at least that is what I was able to quickly related it to. People are going to be worked up about this game, why you ask? It's Star Wars. You have generations that loved their version and both see the way things should be progressing a bit differently. Star Wars, is one of those IPs that people get very protective of so yeah there are some significant complaints coming out where expections might have been too high or spot on, either way they are not being met by what is being released as of yet. Yes, time will tell, but at this stage in the game you get a good idea of the game direction art and playwise.
I agree with what was said in the article. Now first off I should hold my hands up and say I'm probably more of a fanboi when it comes to bioware and lucas arts than most companies. I loved Tie fight, Dragon Age, Baldurs gate well you get the idea long history of loving their games. But this has made me very sad.
First off the Monday presentation, every other game I had to sit through waiting on ToR had hands on gameplay so I have high hopes which are not to be. Instead we get asked do we want to be jedi or sith............Republic or Sith.......... Yes we all know the faction choices and anyone that has to be asked that question doesn't know much about the game. OK fine, we then get told every player will get a ship. Great that means space, wrong it means housing. So Great player cities, Wrong it means instanced housing where you can invite your friends over for tea and cream cakes. Not a bad thing but ultimately told us almost nothing new about the game, we knew for a long time ships would be in, in some form from the smuggler story. Next we get told we will have PvP. No sh*t sherlock you said we would have PvP in an interview a year ago, ah but now PvP will happen in Warzone. OK what does that tell us, turns out nothing later we will find we will have instance and open world PvP cause WoW has it.
Not to worry though we have more days. Well we get 30 mins of add breaks and rehashing what we already have been told. Clearly the script had been carefully checked for any leaks or questions that weren't to be answered. And we also get an interview in which, WoW like or yeah cause its in WoW we will have it fills the answers. Can anyone doubt why people think this is going to be WoW in space (though getting into space may not be an option) when the devs keep using WoW as a base reference. I can imagine the tag line for the game, 'If you like WoW you will love ToR.' None of which has really given the community anything new. The only real info comes from people playing the game at the booth and then writing up their impressions on their web site or blog. Great yes but why have the information put out in this fashion, would it not have been better for people to see the game and get the information first hand. Had there been a hands on demo showing the information we can get from other sites this write up would have been very different. Everyone would come away thinking that was the best E3 presentation ever. Instead of a feeling of being kept in the dark and told nothing much about the game.
Honestly, it doesn't look like anything. The amount of substantial information they have released is so small that its just simply been annoying rather than exciting. I'm still hoping it will be a good game with my breath held and my fingers cross, but we'll see. We can't do any predictions on anything until we actually learn more than tiny tidbits. I've seen alot of game companies play this "releasing tidbits" game, but never have I seen it this bad.
The instanced pvp was probably the biggest reveal of all. Super disappointing for sure, but then what else can you expect from a game that is basically just trying to outpolish WoW and isn't concerned with innovation. The reviewer was right, it's definitely the cheap and easy way out. Apparently pvp is where they decided to cut corners so they could focus more on voiceover acting and story. yay.
Warzones does NOT mean instanced PvP. Warzones can be "Warzones". I.e. a zone where you are automatically flagged for PVP when you enter. This can be located in an open world.
People was obviously expecting way to much a year from release.
It was a real let down the big thing was everyone gets a starship /pause no clapping i just started laughing.
It doesn't help that this was also a rehash of the STO "everyone is the captain of their own ship" fiasco. For me though I like the idea of it just still wondering and hoping they will be able to launch with space combat. It just doesn't seem like Star Wars without it.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
It was a real let down the big thing was everyone gets a starship /pause no clapping i just started laughing.
It doesn't help that this was also a rehash of the STO "everyone is the captain of their own ship" fiasco. For me though I like the idea of it just still wondering and hoping they will be able to launch with space combat. It just doesn't seem like Star Wars without it.
And how do you know that? STO was originally supposed to give us the ability to walk around inside our own ships, decorate and design our own ships. Then they were bought out and it became that we all just turned into a ship in the warp area kind of like walking out into Antonica and walking around on EQ2. In other words, they totally screwed us over.
Seems that Bioware is going with the original design that STO was originally going to offer.
I really hope Warzones are not instanced Battle Grounds. As fun as they were sometime, instanced battlegrounds is what took away from PvP in not only WoW but also WAR. I was hoping Bioware had something new and exciting when it came to this.
I have to ask: Why dont the game companies make what the players want and not what they think they want???
You are, of course, implying that players have any idea what they really want.
Now that is a good point...
Most who have played one or more online game for a longer time (5 to 10 years) knows what create a lasting game from a losing game:
1. Good PvE
2. Good PvP
3. Player echonomy (player made items) Players can become crafters and traders
4. Socializing aspects (Like from SWG: Entertainers: Dancers and musicans - a possible to arranging player parties with friends for mingling sozially - something for times not spent PvE/PvP'ing. This is what keeps players ingame (They will quit if I dont want to PvE/PvP etc) and makes ingame friends.
I am sure there are other aspects too. But graphics and sounds - important they are - are not the most important thing! Thats the players feel and comfort of staying with the game! SWG had it untill NGE! This game will be a NGE from the start!
I am sure SWTOR will be worth the ~40 €/$ and the first 30 days, but i hoped that they show more MMO on the E3 and not all the Singleplayer Stuff.
And YES we already KNOW that the game will have 100% voiceover. That mantra is out.
We didn't know any hard facts about endgame (raid? warefare? endless story quests?), PvP (only that instanced crap? no fights for ressources on Hoth?) , Crafting (that what we heard sounds like a WoW copy&paste) and guilds.
For what do i need a guild in a MSORPG (massivly singleplayer online RPG)?
The fights dont even look good - they look extremly static and boring .. maybe the 0.zero mob AI is the reason for that ... DAoC hat more dynamic mob fights than that ^^
The only good thing was the ship - we will have a housing instance and we can invite friends to it. For release thats somthing great and we can travel around like in Mass Effect 1/2, thats ok to. Better an a boring drop down menu at a (fully voiced!!!11!) NPC
I still have the game on the plan - but more as a nice 30 day singleplayer trip than as a full MMO game. For that i wait on Guild Wars 2 ( voiced over too - but not 100% ^^) and RIFT (nice class system, and the rest looks like good produced MMO stuff with dynamic systems in it).
------------------------------------- Playing: Overwatch, Genshin Impact, Black Desert Mobile, Hundred Soul, Cyberpunk 2077 Inactive: WAR, DAoC, RIFT, GW1/2, TSW, Age of Wulin, Black Desert, Blade & Soul, Skyforge
I have read and listened to soe excelent podcasts , regarding hands on experience in game. Plus all the content and info released in the last few days.
This just gets better as more info is released. The article written here is very poor and it seems the writers on this site are being dragged down to the hater level. This site is ammusing though and always good for a laugh. Other sites are much better if you enjoy the idea of new games, the pathetic hate attempts here are funny though so for entertainment 100% for content and delivery 10%. People are not stupid.
________________________________________________________ Sorcery must persist, the future is the Citadel
I have to ask: Why dont the game companies make what the players want and not what they think they want???
You are, of course, implying that players have any idea what they really want.
Now that is a good point...
Most who have played one or more online game for a longer time (5 to 10 years) knows what create a lasting game from a losing game:
1. Good PvE
2. Good PvP
3. Player echonomy (player made items) Players can become crafters and traders
4. Socializing aspects (Like from SWG: Entertainers: Dancers and musicans - a possible to arranging player parties with friends for mingling sozially - something for times not spent PvE/PvP'ing. This is what keeps players ingame (They will quit if I dont want to PvE/PvP etc) and makes ingame friends.
I am sure there are other aspects too. But graphics and sounds - important they are - are not the most important thing! Thats the players feel and comfort of staying with the game! SWG had it untill NGE! This game will be a NGE from the start!
From what I've seen so far, there is every possibility that SWTOR will have the above elements you've listed and be a winner. I think you're writing the game off already based on conclusions you've drawn based on very little evidence.
@Mandalore: The devs said that crafting will be better than WoW's but not as complex as SWG's if i recall. So that's not "copy and paste".
Can't say I would be disappointed to see PVPer's instanced off into a corner. Sorry, they ruin my game play, my questing and just my general fun. I know some will say its only a few but thats all that it takes and its really more then only a few. People seem to turn into complete morons with little regard to anyone elses game play so I for one applaud if this is how Bioware wants to handle it.
As to the ships, I loved the idea, I'd like to hear more about them.
"It is better to die on one's feet than to live on one's knees,"
IGN have something to show us in 20 mins on their E3 site with regards to SWTOR, not sure what it is (maybe just a repeat of yesterday I dont know): e3.ign.com
Basically, SWTOR isn't living up to your expectations of SWG v2.
Get over it, this is BioWare's game and they are making it the way they think it should be, that isn't going to please everyone but there was plenty of information released that will satisfy a lot of people.
LOL, where in the article did the author even ask about SWG-like features?
Do YOU even know what those SWG features entail? It sure as hell isn't going to be the Template / Skillpoint System since BioWare is utilizing the old Class + Level System. I haven't heard a single word about Crafting and the Player Economy, and SWG used to be very good and deep in that regard (practically everything was player crafted). SWG / JTL also allowed player spacecraft, with larger ones acting as sort of a "home" in space if you desired and being able to fight also. You could even get space mining barges, etc., on top of X-Wings and TIE's. Yet BioWare says you'll have spaceships. Hmm. Okay.
Even after it became known that "players get starships" to act as homes, BioWare didn't answer a terribly obvious question people, no, Star Wars fans have about TOR: Will there be space combat? I haven't heard any details about it, other than you get a ship.
What the author basically was wanting was INFORMATION about the blasted game. BioWare was supposed to be making this a big show for the game. But what kind of information did they give out?
You're going to be able to earn a ship.
Okay.
... And?
Considering that this is E3, a place where you can make a big promo for your upcoming game, and that BioWare was supposed to be making big announcements, I can see how this was a letdown. They failed to deliver information to a very eager, hungry crowd.
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)
NGE from scratch set in a SW themed timeline that supports the NGE classes better than SWG's timeline did.
Add a dash of WoW gameplay mechanics like "Tanks" and "Healers" and "DPS".
Oh, and bad graphics.
Bam! SW:TOR in ur face!
You had me Untill you said Tanks healers and dps like wow : ( Only because you used wow as your example shows you know little about mmos and think wow was the first to ever do tanks dps heals lol.
Well, it appears that theres a lot that they haven't implemented yet and therefore they don't want to discuss them right now.On the IGN live feed they just mentioned that theres bits about the ships that they aren't willing to discuss just yet.
On the massively.com interview they said that crafting will be more depth than WoW, but not as much as SWG.
You *do* realize that EA didn't *give* TOR to BioWare, right? BioWare had already signed agreements with Lucas Arts to do TOR when EA decided that they *really, really* wanted TOR - so EA paid nearly $900 million to buy BioWare in order to bring TOR under their umbrella. Of course, that did nothing to negate the contracts BioWare and LA already had in place. So despite whatever opinion you have of BioWare and/or EA, EA had no choice in BioWare's role in the making of TOR.
Personally, I am quite pleased with BioWare's handling of TOR so far. Sure, I would like more information, and there are a few things that I would have done differently if I was given the choice, but overall BioWare is living up to my expectations at the very least. I am concerned by how they characterized the crafting system. But the sheer scope of the game and the full VO and emphasis on story is just what I have been looking for in an MMO for years. Others will disagree with me, and that is fine - not everyone like the same things in their games. But yes, I do consider those things revolutionary to the MMO genre if they work out the way that BioWare intends them to.
I am waiting to see if my other concerns (yes, there are more than just the crafting concern) are valid or not - but it is a wait and see situation. They have about a year to let me know the answers. In the mean time, I'll play other games and keep my eyes open for that info.
Can't say I would be disappointed to see PVPer's instanced off into a corner. Sorry, they ruin my game play, my questing and just my general fun. I know some will say its only a few but thats all that it takes and its really more then only a few. People seem to turn into complete morons with little regard to anyone elses game play so I for one applaud if this is how Bioware wants to handle it.
As to the ships, I loved the idea, I'd like to hear more about them.
I mainly play mmo's for pvp and I will agree with this or at least understand the viewpoint. But it's the dev's JOB to account for this, to design their game so that it allows for this without ruining someone elses game. Sectioning off an entire group off into BG is just the most simplistic and lazy way of doing it. There are others which can be benificial to your game in the long run and could enhance your play even as a non-pvp'er. They should be exploring and testing these options rather than just copying others ideas which don't really work.
----- The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species.
I look at the bright side.. All the TOR haters and what not.. Well, if they stick true to their words (and we know they won't, they'll buy and play the game, and love it like everybody else).. But.. IF they do stick to their guns, well, once it is released, the rest of us will be too busy having fun in game to provide the fuel their worthless bait posts need to keep them going.
I am not a hater. I am just a gamer that is still in the dark about what kind of game BioWare is making. Yes I do dislike certain things about the game all ready, but I hope other aspects make up for that...aspects I have yet to see or her anything about.
Also, I recall a lot of people on these forums talking smack about people that were criticizing Aion. We were pretty much told the same thing....they'll buy it and play it...sorry didn't buy it. Or they'll not buy it and all of us will be playing it. Umm...last I heard Aion's NA and EU subscriptions aren't doing all that great.
Dont forget, AOC, WAR, Alaganon, STO, Runes Of Magic, Champions Online, etc , all had fanbois rabidly defending said games before launch, and viewed any type of criticism as trolling if it conform to their views of the game, after launch most of those people that defended these games A. Disappeared Completely B. Turned Against The Game C. Kept Playing The Game Out Of Pure Embarassment And Shame That The Game Really Wasnt All It Was Cracked Up To Be.
When the MMO industry in general has put out virutally out the same game for the last 6 years with little to no innovation with subtle differences in each variation and when Bioware devs keep saying stuff "Kinda of like WOW does it, or similar to WOW." Does not give me great appreciation or even faith that this game is remotely different like all the others in the past 6 years, only thing that has stood out clearly is the voice-overs and story. Everything else has been a rehash of what has been told already just giving more details which have been a let down considering all their WOW references, of course its not SWG 2.0 but rather its a WOW 10.0 "ALONG WITH STORY AND 100% Voiceovers!!!"
Wow all i read was a kid ranting about how Bioware didn't show what he wanted to see... I expect much more of a columnist of this site.
I saw the G4 coverage and i was pleased. I was able to see for the first time the Jedi Consular in action, but the columnist didn't even bother to mention that.
I was happy to see that players are not all mighty. This was shown when the Sith Inquisitor tried to take on several enemies at the same time and she died.
We were able to see a semi big group in action. This wasn't shown before. We were able to see how graphics have been polished since the first game play video we saw last year.
Quit the winning and start working seriously. Wait to get your hands on the game to start saying you are disappointed in the game. Wait for the opinion of your mmorpg partners who actually went to E3 to tell how it was before you let lose your pen and write all this winning!
The problem is G4. They don't know a thing about MMOs and it shows. I'm waiting for the reports to come in from people who do know what to look for and what questions to ask.
Comments
Honestly, I saw the ship as a way to one up WoW with a glorified mount. Or at least that is what I was able to quickly related it to. People are going to be worked up about this game, why you ask? It's Star Wars. You have generations that loved their version and both see the way things should be progressing a bit differently. Star Wars, is one of those IPs that people get very protective of so yeah there are some significant complaints coming out where expections might have been too high or spot on, either way they are not being met by what is being released as of yet. Yes, time will tell, but at this stage in the game you get a good idea of the game direction art and playwise.
END OF LINE_
~V
I agree with what was said in the article. Now first off I should hold my hands up and say I'm probably more of a fanboi when it comes to bioware and lucas arts than most companies. I loved Tie fight, Dragon Age, Baldurs gate well you get the idea long history of loving their games. But this has made me very sad.
First off the Monday presentation, every other game I had to sit through waiting on ToR had hands on gameplay so I have high hopes which are not to be. Instead we get asked do we want to be jedi or sith............Republic or Sith.......... Yes we all know the faction choices and anyone that has to be asked that question doesn't know much about the game. OK fine, we then get told every player will get a ship. Great that means space, wrong it means housing. So Great player cities, Wrong it means instanced housing where you can invite your friends over for tea and cream cakes. Not a bad thing but ultimately told us almost nothing new about the game, we knew for a long time ships would be in, in some form from the smuggler story. Next we get told we will have PvP. No sh*t sherlock you said we would have PvP in an interview a year ago, ah but now PvP will happen in Warzone. OK what does that tell us, turns out nothing later we will find we will have instance and open world PvP cause WoW has it.
Not to worry though we have more days. Well we get 30 mins of add breaks and rehashing what we already have been told. Clearly the script had been carefully checked for any leaks or questions that weren't to be answered. And we also get an interview in which, WoW like or yeah cause its in WoW we will have it fills the answers. Can anyone doubt why people think this is going to be WoW in space (though getting into space may not be an option) when the devs keep using WoW as a base reference. I can imagine the tag line for the game, 'If you like WoW you will love ToR.' None of which has really given the community anything new. The only real info comes from people playing the game at the booth and then writing up their impressions on their web site or blog. Great yes but why have the information put out in this fashion, would it not have been better for people to see the game and get the information first hand. Had there been a hands on demo showing the information we can get from other sites this write up would have been very different. Everyone would come away thinking that was the best E3 presentation ever. Instead of a feeling of being kept in the dark and told nothing much about the game.
You know these opinion pieces are getting really tired. Trying to pass this off as news? A majority of the site is turning into lunatic blog postings.
Honestly, it doesn't look like anything. The amount of substantial information they have released is so small that its just simply been annoying rather than exciting. I'm still hoping it will be a good game with my breath held and my fingers cross, but we'll see. We can't do any predictions on anything until we actually learn more than tiny tidbits. I've seen alot of game companies play this "releasing tidbits" game, but never have I seen it this bad.
Warzones does NOT mean instanced PvP. Warzones can be "Warzones". I.e. a zone where you are automatically flagged for PVP when you enter. This can be located in an open world.
People was obviously expecting way to much a year from release.
It doesn't help that this was also a rehash of the STO "everyone is the captain of their own ship" fiasco. For me though I like the idea of it just still wondering and hoping they will be able to launch with space combat. It just doesn't seem like Star Wars without it.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
And how do you know that? STO was originally supposed to give us the ability to walk around inside our own ships, decorate and design our own ships. Then they were bought out and it became that we all just turned into a ship in the warp area kind of like walking out into Antonica and walking around on EQ2. In other words, they totally screwed us over.
Seems that Bioware is going with the original design that STO was originally going to offer.
I really hope Warzones are not instanced Battle Grounds. As fun as they were sometime, instanced battlegrounds is what took away from PvP in not only WoW but also WAR. I was hoping Bioware had something new and exciting when it came to this.
As expected. This is (SWG) NGE v.2.0 - a messy game made worse.
I have to ask: Why dont the game companies make what the players want and not what they think they want???
You are, of course, implying that players have any idea what they really want.
Now that is a good point...
Most who have played one or more online game for a longer time (5 to 10 years) knows what create a lasting game from a losing game:
1. Good PvE
2. Good PvP
3. Player echonomy (player made items) Players can become crafters and traders
4. Socializing aspects (Like from SWG: Entertainers: Dancers and musicans - a possible to arranging player parties with friends for mingling sozially - something for times not spent PvE/PvP'ing. This is what keeps players ingame (They will quit if I dont want to PvE/PvP etc) and makes ingame friends.
I am sure there are other aspects too. But graphics and sounds - important they are - are not the most important thing! Thats the players feel and comfort of staying with the game! SWG had it untill NGE! This game will be a NGE from the start!
I am sure SWTOR will be worth the ~40 €/$ and the first 30 days, but i hoped that they show more MMO on the E3 and not all the Singleplayer Stuff.
And YES we already KNOW that the game will have 100% voiceover. That mantra is out.
We didn't know any hard facts about endgame (raid? warefare? endless story quests?), PvP (only that instanced crap? no fights for ressources on Hoth?) , Crafting (that what we heard sounds like a WoW copy&paste) and guilds.
For what do i need a guild in a MSORPG (massivly singleplayer online RPG)?
The fights dont even look good - they look extremly static and boring .. maybe the 0.zero mob AI is the reason for that ... DAoC hat more dynamic mob fights than that ^^
The only good thing was the ship - we will have a housing instance and we can invite friends to it. For release thats somthing great and we can travel around like in Mass Effect 1/2, thats ok to. Better an a boring drop down menu at a (fully voiced!!!11!) NPC
I still have the game on the plan - but more as a nice 30 day singleplayer trip than as a full MMO game. For that i wait on Guild Wars 2 ( voiced over too - but not 100% ^^) and RIFT (nice class system, and the rest looks like good produced MMO stuff with dynamic systems in it).
-------------------------------------
Playing: Overwatch, Genshin Impact, Black Desert Mobile, Hundred Soul, Cyberpunk 2077
Inactive: WAR, DAoC, RIFT, GW1/2, TSW, Age of Wulin, Black Desert, Blade & Soul, Skyforge
I have read and listened to soe excelent podcasts , regarding hands on experience in game. Plus all the content and info released in the last few days.
This just gets better as more info is released. The article written here is very poor and it seems the writers on this site are being dragged down to the hater level. This site is ammusing though and always good for a laugh. Other sites are much better if you enjoy the idea of new games, the pathetic hate attempts here are funny though so for entertainment 100% for content and delivery 10%. People are not stupid.
________________________________________________________
Sorcery must persist, the future is the Citadel
From what I've seen so far, there is every possibility that SWTOR will have the above elements you've listed and be a winner. I think you're writing the game off already based on conclusions you've drawn based on very little evidence.
@Mandalore: The devs said that crafting will be better than WoW's but not as complex as SWG's if i recall. So that's not "copy and paste".
Top 10 Most Misused Words in MMO's
Can't say I would be disappointed to see PVPer's instanced off into a corner. Sorry, they ruin my game play, my questing and just my general fun. I know some will say its only a few but thats all that it takes and its really more then only a few. People seem to turn into complete morons with little regard to anyone elses game play so I for one applaud if this is how Bioware wants to handle it.
As to the ships, I loved the idea, I'd like to hear more about them.
"It is better to die on one's feet than to live on one's knees,"
IGN have something to show us in 20 mins on their E3 site with regards to SWTOR, not sure what it is (maybe just a repeat of yesterday I dont know): e3.ign.com
Top 10 Most Misused Words in MMO's
double post, sorry.
Top 10 Most Misused Words in MMO's
LOL, where in the article did the author even ask about SWG-like features?
Do YOU even know what those SWG features entail? It sure as hell isn't going to be the Template / Skillpoint System since BioWare is utilizing the old Class + Level System. I haven't heard a single word about Crafting and the Player Economy, and SWG used to be very good and deep in that regard (practically everything was player crafted). SWG / JTL also allowed player spacecraft, with larger ones acting as sort of a "home" in space if you desired and being able to fight also. You could even get space mining barges, etc., on top of X-Wings and TIE's. Yet BioWare says you'll have spaceships. Hmm. Okay.
Even after it became known that "players get starships" to act as homes, BioWare didn't answer a terribly obvious question people, no, Star Wars fans have about TOR: Will there be space combat? I haven't heard any details about it, other than you get a ship.
What the author basically was wanting was INFORMATION about the blasted game. BioWare was supposed to be making this a big show for the game. But what kind of information did they give out?
You're going to be able to earn a ship.
Okay.
... And?
Considering that this is E3, a place where you can make a big promo for your upcoming game, and that BioWare was supposed to be making big announcements, I can see how this was a letdown. They failed to deliver information to a very eager, hungry crowd.
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)
You had me Untill you said Tanks healers and dps like wow : ( Only because you used wow as your example shows you know little about mmos and think wow was the first to ever do tanks dps heals lol.
Well, it appears that theres a lot that they haven't implemented yet and therefore they don't want to discuss them right now.On the IGN live feed they just mentioned that theres bits about the ships that they aren't willing to discuss just yet.
On the massively.com interview they said that crafting will be more depth than WoW, but not as much as SWG.
Top 10 Most Misused Words in MMO's
You *do* realize that EA didn't *give* TOR to BioWare, right? BioWare had already signed agreements with Lucas Arts to do TOR when EA decided that they *really, really* wanted TOR - so EA paid nearly $900 million to buy BioWare in order to bring TOR under their umbrella. Of course, that did nothing to negate the contracts BioWare and LA already had in place. So despite whatever opinion you have of BioWare and/or EA, EA had no choice in BioWare's role in the making of TOR.
Personally, I am quite pleased with BioWare's handling of TOR so far. Sure, I would like more information, and there are a few things that I would have done differently if I was given the choice, but overall BioWare is living up to my expectations at the very least. I am concerned by how they characterized the crafting system. But the sheer scope of the game and the full VO and emphasis on story is just what I have been looking for in an MMO for years. Others will disagree with me, and that is fine - not everyone like the same things in their games. But yes, I do consider those things revolutionary to the MMO genre if they work out the way that BioWare intends them to.
I am waiting to see if my other concerns (yes, there are more than just the crafting concern) are valid or not - but it is a wait and see situation. They have about a year to let me know the answers. In the mean time, I'll play other games and keep my eyes open for that info.
I mainly play mmo's for pvp and I will agree with this or at least understand the viewpoint. But it's the dev's JOB to account for this, to design their game so that it allows for this without ruining someone elses game. Sectioning off an entire group off into BG is just the most simplistic and lazy way of doing it. There are others which can be benificial to your game in the long run and could enhance your play even as a non-pvp'er. They should be exploring and testing these options rather than just copying others ideas which don't really work.
-----
The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species.
Dont forget, AOC, WAR, Alaganon, STO, Runes Of Magic, Champions Online, etc , all had fanbois rabidly defending said games before launch, and viewed any type of criticism as trolling if it conform to their views of the game, after launch most of those people that defended these games A. Disappeared Completely B. Turned Against The Game C. Kept Playing The Game Out Of Pure Embarassment And Shame That The Game Really Wasnt All It Was Cracked Up To Be.
When the MMO industry in general has put out virutally out the same game for the last 6 years with little to no innovation with subtle differences in each variation and when Bioware devs keep saying stuff "Kinda of like WOW does it, or similar to WOW." Does not give me great appreciation or even faith that this game is remotely different like all the others in the past 6 years, only thing that has stood out clearly is the voice-overs and story. Everything else has been a rehash of what has been told already just giving more details which have been a let down considering all their WOW references, of course its not SWG 2.0 but rather its a WOW 10.0 "ALONG WITH STORY AND 100% Voiceovers!!!"
Wow all i read was a kid ranting about how Bioware didn't show what he wanted to see... I expect much more of a columnist of this site.
I saw the G4 coverage and i was pleased. I was able to see for the first time the Jedi Consular in action, but the columnist didn't even bother to mention that.
I was happy to see that players are not all mighty. This was shown when the Sith Inquisitor tried to take on several enemies at the same time and she died.
We were able to see a semi big group in action. This wasn't shown before. We were able to see how graphics have been polished since the first game play video we saw last year.
Quit the winning and start working seriously. Wait to get your hands on the game to start saying you are disappointed in the game. Wait for the opinion of your mmorpg partners who actually went to E3 to tell how it was before you let lose your pen and write all this winning!
The problem is G4. They don't know a thing about MMOs and it shows. I'm waiting for the reports to come in from people who do know what to look for and what questions to ask.